Random Access

Stray Toasters

• Clitorati Question: Since our usual hangout will be undergoing renovations over the next few weeks, do we want to relocate? Drop me a line with your suggestions and I’ll let you know the concensus on Thursday.
• I have a toaster pastry that would be a Pop Tart… if it was made by Kellogg’s.
• Madonna’s Secret played in the morning musical oleo during today’s commute. It made me laugh because when it got to the following part:
  

  Happiness lies in your own hand
  It took me much too long
  To understand how it could be
  Until you shared your secret with me

  I had the horrible thought of that being repurposed and used as the background music of a Secret deodorant/anti-perspirant ad.

• Check out the videos and information on the SawStop: 1, 2
• I was showing Tyranist the video for Hooverphonic’s 2Wicky a little while ago.  Today was the first time that I paid attention to the lottery balls shown near the end of the video: 6-0-0-9-1.  This ties back into the first lyric of the song: “Prophet 60091“  Nice touch.

Monday – 04 June 2007
One down, four to go.

Today was good. Quiet. No fires. And, I got to start the day in the Salt Lake office. And, I get to do it again tomorning. This evening has been a relaxing night at home with the kids. I ran a recovery mission in Talos Island with Nefer-Tem. And, I did some reading – I now have about sixty pages left in Specter of the Past. Thanks to Eric, I can move right on to the next book, Vision of the Future, when I finish. And, at some point, I need to get back into Pattern Recognition.
Stray Toasters

• Force fields, Underoos^® and datajacks.
• World of Warcraft Language Translations
  
• Dr. Steel
• Tyranist and I were discussing “the Uncanny Valley” today, because of these articles: 1, 2.
• Same Actor, Different Role 2 – A Worth 1000 contest (image heavy)
• Scotty Doesn’t Know (Damn you, Tyranist!)
  
  Okay, okay…. fine. Here’s the actual video for the song. (Can you spot Matt Damon in the video?)
• The 2012 Olympics + London + goatse = something that probably looks like this.
• Anti-DRM t-shirt design contest
• 
• Do the Right Thing recreated with Sesame Street toys

Namaste.

Sunday (coda)
I wound up heading to Jitterbug for a late lunch/early and light dinner and to get some more time with a pencil in my hand. I was successful at both. I didn’t finish the picture because I didn’t have a reference book handy, but I got a lot of other work in on it. I’m probably less than thirty minutes from completing it.

After that, I decided to take a drive. I didn’t want to simply loop the SLC Valley, my usual Parley’s/Emigration run didn’t sound appealing and I didn’t feel like going to Park City. So, I headed north. My thought: I’ll head north until I don’t want to go any farther and turn around and come back. Sounded good in theory, the practical application was a little different: I wound up going to Ogden. And, since I was in Ogden, I decided to stop in and see Dee, Kim and the boys. I’m glad that I did – it was fun to hang out with them for a while.

I headed home. After checking on the cats (they were fine) and determining that I didn’t feel like sitting at home, I decided to take in 28 Weeks Later. Not bad. Not bad at all. It did raise a couple questions that I will throw to and Tyranist, however:

Are all zombie movies inherently apocalyptic/nihilist? Or has there been a movie – other than *ack-thbppt*Undead – where the zombie hordes are defeated/eliminated and the world goes on more or less as it was?

Shortly after it started, 28WL made me think of a question and a similar one popped up about two-thirds of the way through the movie:

1. Could you make the choice to leave a loved one behind in the face of overwhelming odds or would you stick with them and take your chances?
2. Could you make the call to wipe out everyone and everything (and I do mean “everyone and everything”) in order to eliminate an otherwise unstoppable threat?

I enjoyed the movie… even though I noticed, as with Spider-day Night Fever, there were some contrivances/coincidences that without which the movie would have fallen apart. And… it reminded me of Aliens in a number of ways. But, it was a nice way to cap off the weekend.

Stray Toasters

• Is it bad that I want one of these for my desk at work? (At least for the south office.)
• …and one of these wouldn’t be bad, either.
• Heaven help me for the way that I am
  Save me from these evil deeds
  Before I get them done…
  
• Sissy’s taken to growling at the twins again. *sigh*
• While I don’t really need anything from here, my inner LEGO Maniac wouldn’t mind having the Ice Brick Tray, Coaster Set… and even the Plate and Tumbler Sets. Particularly the Ice Brick Tray, though.
• Amazing 3D Scanner Made with LEGO and Milk
• At some point today, I heard John Sugar Melonhead’s Jack and Diane. It got to the refrain, “Oh, yeah, life goes on… Long after the thrill of living is gone” and I almost immediately started laughing: I had a picture of Nefer-Tem fighting a villain and getting blasted/pummelled/whatever to the point of near-death. (Which, since he is technically a mummy, is merely a minor setback.) He gets up, casually tosses out that line… and proceeds to wail the tar out of his opponent.
• iPhone Release Date Confirmed as June 29
• While I’m on the subject of cell phones: Cell phone ‘CSI’
• Have you heard Tori Amos’ cover of Bruce Springsteen’s I’m on Fire? Check it out here, even though this is not the version I was looking for.

I should give more than “a little thought” to calling it a night…

Namaste.

Sunday – 03 June 2007
It’s been a quiet day. The kids are… around. Somewhere. Sissy is curled up and asleep in the chair across the room; I’m going to assume that the twins are napping as well. There’s been some progress: Sissy isn’t hissing madly at the twins (especially Presto) when they cross her DEW Line. In fact, Sissy even let Presto sniff – and possibly lick – her a little while ago. I was shocked, but pleasantly so.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve discovered a new distraction:
• I’ve finished with the major work on ‘s pic; I got some decent time in on it yesterday. If I do the same today, I should be finished with it this afternoon/evening.
• Shoe Box
• 
• We come into the world and take our chances
  Fate is just the weight of circumstances
  That’s the way that lady luck dances
  Roll the bones…
• 
• HOWTO make an Aliens pulse rifle
• Sissy is snoring. Too bad my camera’s outside – the way she’s lying, with her head kind of lopped over, is cute.
• Does Marvel have an analogue for/of either Oracle or The Calculator?
• This looks interesting…
  
• and : Did you know about this contest?

“The night has a thousand saxophones. And nary a clarinet between us.”
(Bonus points for knowing where that comes from…)
Namaste.

Saturday – 02 June 2007
This morning started with another new-to-me episode of Legion of Super Heroes: “Timber Wolf.” From what I recall, they did a decent job in the retelling the basics of his origin; there were a few things that were omitted, but what are you going to do in a 22-minute format?

I’m not sure how much of this was intentional – or just me drawing connections between similar things – but there seemed to be a couple of nods to Legion of Super-Heroes (v1) #289:

Timber Wolf and Saturn Girl, along with three other Legionnaires, were trapped on an asteroid following a botched mission by the Legion Espionage Squad. (No, I didn’t make that name up.) In that issue, Light Lass (sister of Lightning Lad and, at the time, dating Timber Wolf) and a small rescue team found the lost Legionnaires… and found Saturn Girl and Timber Wolf in what seemed like an intimate moment. Shortly thereafter, Light Lass broke up with Timber Wolf.

In this episode, Timber Wolf leaps to Saturn Girl’s rescue a few times and there seems to be something of a bond between the two of them. Again, it could be something that I read into it from having read the comic for many years, but if it was something that the writers threw in there, the ‘toon just added another level of cool in my book.

Stray Toasters

• I continue to be amused by
• 
• 
• …and this one is for :
  

Up, up and… you know the rest.

Namaste.

Friday – 01 June 2007
Night One with the kids went fairly well. All three were a bit skittish, but survived. Lightning came out to explore a bit, followed a little while later by Presto. Sissy was a little less inclined to wander, but finally struck out to see what’s what and what’s where. Sissy is also trying to assert herself as the Alpha. That’s going over well.

This morning, Presto’s been a bit more “clingy” than I’m used to. She’s not always exactly underfoot, but she’s been very close at hand. Old habits apparently die hard, however, as she decided to drape herself across my clothes when I laid them out.

Last night, I went to Target to pick up a cat litter scoop. I found everything but one. I checked the pet aisles. I checked the cleaning aisles. No go, Flight. They didn’t have any, either none in stock or they were cleverly disguised as cat toys and cat clothes. *shrug* Oh, na. I wound up going to the nearby grocery store – they had plenty of ’em.
Stray Toasters

• Intrepid seemed to shit itself. Again. It cleared up after a couple reboots, but it’s something I’ll be keeping an eye on.
• , and the rest of the Treasure Valley Rollergirls, have a bout here over the weekend of 23 June 07. The lovely Ms. J will be staying here while she’s in town.
• Oh No Robot webcomics search
• 
• Steampunk Magazine
• , click here.
• I’d love to post this at work, but I’d have to censor it to keep from offending delicate sensibilities…
  
• Friends of Lulu

Up out.

Namaste.

Thursday – 31 May 2007
And so, another month draws to a close.

Yin: I overslept this morning.
Yang: The barista at the caffeine dispensary made a mistake and gave me a large frozen mocha… for the price of a medium.

Starting tonight, I have the kids for a week.

I talked with Mom. She doesn’t remember talking with me yesterday… which I pretty much expected. She ‘splained what was wrong and what the surgery did – including the addition of a bit of titanium. I’m gonna start calling her X-23 or Lady Deathstrike from now on. I don’t think they added claws, but to err on the side of caution I’ll make sure that I’m out of arms’ reach before I call her either of those names.

Stray Toasters

• I took my morning constitutional a little while ago. As I walked past a bird, it warbled and flew off. I had a Dr. Doolittle moment and wondered what it would be like to know what it was “saying.” That hyperlinked to a mental image of Tarzan. Then things took an even more odd turn, as the next mental image that popped into my head was NOT Shanna, the She-Devil or even Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Those, I could have fairly easily explained. No, the first post-Tarzan thought was Jana of the Jungle. Whiskey Tango…?!
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ opening date has been pushed up two days.
• Knowing his affinity for most things zombie, I pointed Tyranist in the direction of this item from Marvel’s website.

[11:16] Tyranist: Wow. I guess Zombies are marketing gold.
[11:31] shadorunr: Apparently so.
[11:31] shadorunr: Cold and (un)dead are the new “in” thing.
[11:31] Tyranist: And normally I like zombies. Just not Marvel’s version. They . . . uh . . . bite.
[11:31] shadorunr: *rimshot*

• 
• My weekly work commute just got 32.31% shorter. (Where’d I put that Ares Alpha with grenade launcher…?)
• scares me sometimes… such as when he shows me things like this.
• By way of boingboing.net: The Battle of Ham’s Deep – Helm’s Deep made with Muppets
• I was a big fan of Jonny Quest back in the day. While I get that it’s a parody/satire, I am not such a fan of Venture Bros. However, there are two things from the show that make me smile:
• Major Tom Dies
• Best Entrance Ever
• …and, speaking of Mr. Bowie: What in the Nine Hells is this?!

Time to pick up and put down heavy things.

Namaste.

We the people,
In order to form a more perfect union,
Establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
Provide for the common defense,
Promote the general welfare and
Secure the blessings of liberty
To ourselves and our posterity
Do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Okay… by a show of hands, how many of you were singing that as you read it?

Ordinarily, I would be inclined to agree with the TANSTAAFL principle.

Today, however, I am eating Pollo Porcini Canneloni, with bread and salad – brought in from Ottavio’s for a meeting. One that I am not party to, even. But Mindy came by, asked whether or not I had eaten and told me to have at it.

And I did. And it was tasty.

Wednesday – 30 May 2007
I talked with Mom last night – everything went well.  Of course, I neglected to factor in time zones when I called, so she was already asleep.  I’m going to try again in a little while.
Last night was also D&D night.  wasn’t there, but we sallied forth without her.  Somewhat.  I ran her character.  *shrug*  Two characters, no big deal.  (I ran five in a campaign once, many moons past.  That was… interesting.)  I didn’t get her – or myself – killed, so I consider that an accomplishment.

This morning’s commute moved to the beat of my “Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll” playlist.  A few songs came on that reminded me of people:

• Lola (The Kinks) – I’ve enjoyed this song for years, but the thing that always makes me chuckle about it comes from high school.  A student named Brian, one year ahead of me, held an assembly which was basically a mini-“concert”.  He played the piano… and guitar, if I remember correctly.  He closed out the assembly with a great piano rendition of Lola.  It went over pretty well with the student body; the administration…. had issues with it.
• Kiss Me Deadly (Lita Ford) – Johnny M.  He was one of the guys from my dorm, sorry “residence hall,” at Purdue.  And he had a HUGE mad on for Ms. Ford.  Massive.  Huge.  Ginormous, even.  I don’t know if it’s possible to wear out a CD, but I think that he tried to with Lita.  And he’d rock out to this song – and most of the others on the CD, too.
• Love Rollercoaster (both versions – The Ohio Players and RHCP) – I first heard the RHCP version of the song, when it was part of the Beavis & Butt-head Do America soundtrack.  I remember thinking, “How long could it have taken them to write this?!  Five minutes, if that?!”  Then, I discovered that it was a cover of The Ohio Players’ song… which meant that the only new part of the song was the “rap” that Anthony Kiedis does during the bridge.  Right.  This reminds me of a former postal coworker, Chad.  We would often share a tape player or CD player at work – it was good for saving on batteries and getting some variety in what we listened to.  Even when I wasn’t listening to the same thing as him, I could tell when this song came on because he’d lean way back in his chair and his typing – already rather fast – got even more fast.

This morning also started in the SLC office, which is almost never a bad thing.
Stray Toasters

• I, once again, managed to not spill my mocha on the way in.
• Sisyphus
• Last night, I went to a local grocery store to pick up a package of razor blades.  Actually, I wound up going to two stores – one was out of them.  *grblsnrkx*  At the second store, I found the razor blades… locked behind a plexiglass barrier.  Ô.õ  ?!  I don’t think that I’ve seen that before.  And it was just the blades.  The razors – including the multi-packs and some of the more expensive hand razors – were sitting out in the open.  Big as day, twice as bright.  It shocked me to also note that that locked up the razor blades… but left the condoms out.  Maybe they are more worried about kids going emo than the local birth rate.
• He’s a little bit afraid of dying
  But he’s a lot more afraid of your lying…
• 
• Gear Clock
• I saw this article and the first thing that came to mind was: “What would George Clinton have to say about that?”
• I’m craving cheese fries and prime rib from Outback.
• Finally, the perfect lamp for the chiropractor – Mortal Kombat fan – on your Christmas list.

Back to the mill.

Namaste.

Thanks to for sending a link to footage from the upcoming (new) Clone Wars.

And, Eric posted a link to One Two, One Two, a new Homestar Runner toon.
After the video is over, click “Mix Your Own Style” to use the Mix Mastah 800.

Tuesday – 29 May 2007
The first thing that went through my mind when I was typing the date was: “Tuesday is Blues day.” Bonus points if you remember what that meant.

A/another short week begins. Amen.

My mother’s going in for surgery this afternoon. From what I understand, it’s not a big deal, but it could/will prevent a much bigger deal. When I called her to say “Hi” this morning, she was in the salon, preparing to get her hair done. Before… going… to…. *sigh* Yeah. That’s Mom. Kris is going to call me, post-op, to give me the low-down on how it went and how Mom’s doing.

The commute was, for the most part, good. There were a couple of monkeys who made me wish that I had shock collars or a cattle prod, but the rest of the… huh, “a barrel” really is one of the names for a group of monkeys… anyway, the rest of them were fairly docile. This morning’s musical oleo came from my Rush playlist. (I’ll avoid making any other bad “Rush hour” jokes, other than that one.):

• Cold Fire
• The Spirit of Radio
• Tai Shan
  
• Grand Designs
  
• Animate
  
• Freewill

That made dealing with the road monkeys a little easier, too.

Stray Toasters

• I had a cinnamon roll and a frozen mocha… which I managed to get into the building without issue this morning.
• The Politics of Dancing
• 
• Go, Pacers!
  (Huh…? They aren’t in the playoffs? Oh. Nevermind, then.)
• “Less Human Than Human”
• Does anyone remember Gorf? I used to love that game.
• As His Chocolate Holiness, I think that Derek deserves elevation to a position above “Acolyte.” Possibly even something above “Priest.” My inner anarchist – which in this case may be “my inner Antichrist” – wants to make him “Bishop,” just because of the fact that we are in Utah.
• 
• Alter Ego: author’s audio slideshow of gamers and avatars
• Death by Pillsbury
• I have made references to satisfying my inner Kryptonian/Daxamite while taking my morning and afternoon constitutionals. This morning, I came up with a variation on that theme: Who are solar-powered heroes/villains in the MU/DCU? I came up with the following:
• Superman
• Supergirl
• Mon-El (M’onel / Valor)
• Andromeda
• Any other Kryptonian or Daxamite you’d care to name
• The brothers Summers: Cyclops and Havok (I’m not sure abot Vulcan, as his powers haven’t been fully explained.)
• Bizarro, I would assume
• SunspotI’m sure that I’ve missed a few, but those were the only ones who came to mind.
• ::: CLASSIFIED :::
• 777-9311

Namaste.

Monday – 28 May 2007
Happy Memorial Day.

It’s about more than cookouts and swimming and sales at the local shopping center.

Namaste.

* The subject line is taken from the first verse of Taps.

Sunday: coda
I accomplished one of the things I had intended earlier today: I made it to IKEA.

Also on the list were: drawing (, I’ll let you know when I get started on that pic… which should be tomorrow morning) and going to the grocery store.  Those two things went *pfft* because I decided to stop by and see Kate, Perry and the kids.  Time well spent… and I can still do the other things tomorning.  I also had dinner with at Sampan.

This evening, looking for something to do, I decided to check out Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.  I have to admit that it wasn’t the movie that I was expecting.  I felt that Dead Man’s Chest (or “Pirates 2: Electric Boogaloo”) was a decent movie… but it suffered from sequel-itis, to me.  And scenes like the swordfight-on-a-waterwheel – all forty-five minutes of it (yes, I know that it was shorter than that, but it just seemed to go on forever) – seemed like they were trying too hard.

I didn’t get that feeling from AWE.  The story actually moved.  And, I was especially taken with the opening scene: The subtle, somber-to-almost-uplifting defiance of the crowd was handled very well.  Yes, I can understand some peoples’ comments about too many interweaving plots, but I don’t feel cheated.  And, probably most importantly: The movie surprised me.  In more than one spot.  Just when I thought I’d come up with “viable solution x” to a problem in the movie, they pulled a Kobayashi Maru and came up with a different answer.  I’m not going to spoil the movie for those who haven’t seen it, but I will note that viewers should stay through the credits.  Additionally, there was a trailer for The Golden Compass before AWE that looked rather interesting.

Stray Toasters

• I have just confirmed (once again) my geekiness: In the new issue of LEGO Magazine, they have a list of winners of their LEGO Clubhouse Building Challenge.  Quite frankly, they had some good nice concepts.  My first thought after looking at it: “I wonder if I have enough bricks to do Legion HQ…?“
• Homework sucks: The case against homework
• By way of Derek: Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panels
• While web-crawling, I came across The Greatest Harry Potter Theory Ever?  It makes a couple of interesting points…
• LEGO.com Star Wars Homepage
• Since I’ve already indirectly referenced Mr. Shatner, I’ll go ahead and link to William Shatner: The Dancehall Remix
• Skidmarks 3: Burnin’ Assphalt – Silly, but amusing stop-motion movie.
• I thought that this was funny: Ten New Rock n Roll Ice Cream Flavors for Ben & Jerry
• Tyranist, click here.
• They should release Pirates of Dark Water (1, 2, 3) on DVD.  Wait… maybe not.  I remember how much I anticipated the release of Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers (1, 2, 3) on DVD and how poorly the animation and looping held up.  Maybe they should just redo both series.
• I’d buy a ticket to see this.
• and , click here.

Namaste.

Sunday – 27 May 2007
It’s been a very quiet, lazy day.

So far, the highlights have been:

• Putting Corvus Nox through the paces in The Hollows… on a less-than-balanced team. I was the main healer, which is not a good thing. If anything, Nox is more of a field medic than a healer – I can patch you up… I can even resurrect you (as long as there are nearby enemies from whom I can drain life), but powerful heals are not my fortè. Needless to say, there was a good bit of dying spread around the team.
• Taking a nap.

I’m a little torn between going to IKEA – I want to check a couple of things, now that the crowds have (hopefully) waned a bit – and heading to either Borders or B&N to do some drawing. Of course, the easy answer is: “Do both.” Which currently ranks pretty high on the list.

And with that, I’m a vapor trail.

Namaste.